Word: guns
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Since Sept. 11, the FBI has tried twice to determine whether anyone detained in connection with terrorist activities bought guns shortly before their arrest. Members of al-Qaeda could still be operating in the United States and could still be planning terrorist attacks, and the FBI wanted to find out what kind of firepower they had. The federal government keeps records of gun purchases for 90 days after the background check, and a limited search found that at least two detainees had recently bought guns. But John Ashcroft’s Justice Department has forbidden the FBI from examining...
Ashcroft, who graced the cover of a National Rifle Association magazine this summer, has long opposed using these records for law enforcement purposes out of the fear that it will lead to a national gun registry. He has repeatedly claimed that retaining the records is illegal, even after the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise. As a senator in 1998, Ashcroft tried to amend the law, but his amendment was defeated. Now the attorney general is seeking to change the law on his own by refusing to enforce it, preventing the FBI from accessing the information and attempting to have...
...prevent acts of terrorism. Even if Ashcroft were right and if current law prevented the FBI from using the records, that law can be changed. The Justice Department has repeatedly asked Congress for more flexibility in wiretapping and other matters, and there’s no reason to leave gun purchases...
...attorney general has turned a deaf ear to their pleas and to those of senior FBI officials. For a man who has been so dismissive of fundamental liberties and of the right to privacy in all other walks of life, Ashcroft seems determined to protect the privacy of gun owners—even if they’re members of al-Qaeda. In the words he used before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ashcroft’s decision may not give pause to America’s friends, but it quite literally “gives ammunition to America?...
They didn't always. Bellisario (Magnum, P.I.; Quantum Leap) conceived the drama as "Top Gun meets A Few Good Men" and sold it to NBC, where it debuted in 1995. But in 1995-96, its first season on the network of Seinfeldian cool, JAG finished 77th in the ratings. nbc wanted more shootouts and hardware; Bellisario wanted to retain the legal drama. The show was headed for a dishonorable discharge when Moonves, seeing a good fit for his network's older audience, snapped it up, rolling gunslinging action and courtroom drama into one star-spangled package...